Showing kids that science, engineering careers are cool

Most students cite pro athletes, movie stars or musicians as their idols. It’s understandable to a large point. Television and the Internet have long promoted the fame and fortune of those most successful in these professions. For young people in the lower income brackets, such careers may even be perceived by them to be their only way up the economic ladder.

You and I know otherwise, but it really doesn’t matter what we believe to be true. We as parents, teachers and business leaders have to play a more active role in showing young people the indisputable fact that scientists and engineers lead great lives.

Need proof? Here you go:

There are more rich scientists and engineers than wealthy sports figures or movie stars. Scientists and engineers can make a lot of money a lot quicker. Four of the current Forbes’ 10 Richest People in America are engineers or scientists, and none are pro athletes or actors. The average salary for a biomedical engineer in San Diego is $79,000, nearly twice that of the region’s median income.

What’s more, the demand for such skills is high, so the career prospects are greater. Think about it – fewer than 1 percent of all people who play baseball will make it to the major leagues, yet there are an estimated half-billion dollars of annual software engineering salaries available in San Diego alone at this moment. So while the potential for a student to carve out a lucrative, long-term professional athletic livelihood is low to say the least, the opportunity to forge a science and engineering career is within the grasp of every San Diego student.

Scientists and engineers make a difference. Tell a student to look around them and realize that everything in their house, school or playground is possible because someone invented or discovered it. The impacts of such individuals are significant and widespread, and the opportunities for making a sizable contribution in the world are endless. Scientists and engineers literally help make our planet a better place to live. To name just a few, they provide affordable food to starving children in remote areas of the globe, develop vaccines and medicines and create better ways for us to communicate with one another around the corner and across the world.

These aren’t pipe dreams, but real achievements from the daily work of those in the field. While there are significant cultural and economic benefits from the arts, the impact that someone can have in the science and engineering fields has the potential to be far greater.

The jobs are really cool. The average musician, actor or athlete will tell you that their work is a grind; an endless array of bus rides, motels and no-name venues. It gets to be Groundhog Day every day with little change for the better. Not so for the average scientist or engineer; their jobs are always changing, always invigorating.

That’s because these professions require people to challenge conventional wisdom and discover new and better ways to do things. In short – they never settle for the status quo and are always pushing the envelope of knowledge. Most call their work “play time,” because they get to come in and experiment. Working for a living is a chore, but playing around to try out different ideas is fun, especially when you get paid good money to do it.

With all these positive attributes, students should be lining up to study science and engineering. The stats show otherwise, and the opportunity to change that rests with those in the field and those who teach it. We must make these professions real and relevant to a young person’s ambition to make money, do good and have fun. Right now pro sports jocks, rock stars and movie stars are looked upon as the main options to achieve these professional goals. That can change, but only if teachers, parents, scientists and engineers make it their mission to do so.

Briggs, Ph.D., is a distinguished professor at UC San Diego and chief scientist for the San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering (http://www.sdsciencefestival.com/) sbriggs@ucsd.edu